Friday, March 30, 2012

I noticed
to my horror, however, that in certain lights and from certain angles, the
re-knit part looks different from what precedes. Because it is unblocked? Or
because – horror of horrors! – my husband was right (he usually is) and I
should have de-crinkled the yarn before re-knitting? It looks sort of un-ironed. He hasn’t commented on it,
it may disappear with wear, and I prefer not to think about it.

Thanks for
your comments yesterday, Helen, on the
subject of de-crinkling.

So
yesterday’s knitting was devoted to the Zauberball sock. I finished the ribbing
and am speeding down the leg. Pic soon. I should reach the heel today. The
current plan is to do something slightly more demanding than the Afterthought
Heel, since I’m here with my books. A Dutch heel, perhaps? Neatby’s garter
stitch heel? I couldn’t attempt an Andersson if I wanted to, because it’s
toe-up.

The yarn
for the snood will presumably be heralded by a card telling me what I’ve got to
pay. I’m very unlikely, therefore, to have the actual yarn before Monday at the
earliest. By then, I should have done so much sock that I might as well go
ahead and finish the pair.

By the way...

Jared has
an interesting blog entry about the Inversion Cardigan in his new
collection – one of those babies you can wear upside down. I was rather struck
by it my first time through, when I bought the infinity scarf pattern which may
wind up as my snood, at least stitch-wise. And I’m tempted again.

Sky Scarf

I was
interested in your comment Tuesday, JennyS, saying that your Kent-based scarf
is bluer than mine. I suspect the inferiority
of Edinburgh
weather is the reason, but there are other possibilities, starting with the time of day of the observation. I often find that
the day starts with a light cloud-cover even when it’s going to be sunny. And
much depends on the yarns available for selection. But the whole thing is
really very subjective – the sky is often partly blue and partly grey. That’s the fun of it.

I hope the
Little Boys at Loch Fyne will be interested in the project when we are there next week. If they
are, I will knit their choices for those three mornings, however much I
disagree.

I, too, had
considered a Sunset Scarf for next year. There were some marvellous late afternoon
skies around here in January. But the logistics might be tricky – I mean,
getting oneself in position to observe the sunset, and doing it every day.

Beverly, I am taken with your idea of
knitting the scarf as a tube, ends inside. There could be purl stitches at
either side to encourage flatness. I like the opportunity to knit with two
yarns held together, making it a little easier to express what I see. But I
could still do that.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Shandy, that was sweet. Thank you.
But a Terrible Event is certain, in a sense. They can strike at any stage of
life, they often do, they always come as a surprise, but one of the differences
between old age (if you’re lucky enough to get there) and the rest is that you
have occasional flashes when you realise for sure that one (at least) is really
going to happen to you. As I did on Monday evening -- reduced sight could mean loss of driving license and therefore no more Strathardle. Was it actually happening?

A Tom
Stoppard character observes in Rosencrantz and Gildenstern Are Dead, that we
all remember making interesting discoveries about sex, but can’t remember when
and how we found out about death.

Enough.

The v-neck
vest is finished (again) except for a final try-on this morning. I don’t think
I’ll block it again. I resumed the Crazy Zauberball socks. It takes
half-an-hour or so for the fingers to readjust themselves to smaller needles
and round-and-round. Once that happens, one never wants to stop.

Zauberball
is new to me. It looks from the label as if it will take a whole sock for the
colour changes to work themselves out. What fun!

This is the
pair on which I mean to learn the Afterthought Heel, and I found myself
worrying last night about the question of how much heel to allow for, when measuring
foot length. A bit of Googling this morning, and I think 2” should be about
right. Maybe now that I’ve got the bit between the teeth, I’ll go ahead and
finish this pair before knitting the snood.

That could
involve starting the next pair at Loch Fyne next weekend, where knitting-time
increases. And if so, the overall plan needs adjustment. I had meant to do the
Andersson Heel next but I do not understand it at all. It needs to be
reserved for quiet evenings in Edinburgh.
I’ll pick something else from the list and make the necessary plans.
Hundertwasser is to be the yarn.

Helen
C.K.S. reports, in the blog entry I
referred to yesterday, that she decided to frog an entire shawl at the stage
when it was being wrapped in pretty paper for dispatch. Observe that she wound
the yarn into skeins, not balls, and then washed them because they were so
crinkled.

Is that
necessary? When I frogged the top of the vest recently, my husband fretted that
the crinkled yarn would knit up differently. I didn’t think so, and I didn’t
notice any difference when I was re-knitting it. Sometimes I was using ravelled
yarn, sometimes new (because I found I had enough and didn’t need to repeat the
alternate-skein thing to incorporate lighter yarn).

Nor is
there any discernable difference in the result, as far as I can see. I’d better
write to Helen about this.

Non-knit

I’m glad I
posted about my vision thing yesterday, and grateful for comments. I’ve learned
a lot. I feel you’re very likely to be right, Theresa, that an allergy is at
work here. I know I am very sensitive to house dust, in which I am embowered.
But what’s new lately? Maybe just spring pollens?

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

There never
was such a woman for good tips on websites and films. I offer my own with
appropriate diffidence: Twenty Twelve is back. Friday, 10 pm, BBC 2. Lord
Downton Abbey (=Hugh Bonneville) is transmogrified into Ian Fletcher, head of
the Deliverance Committee in charge of arrangements for the Olympic Games.
Olympophobes like me and my husband may enjoy it a teensy bit more than the
general population, but there is a lot for everyone if it's half as good as the first series.

The v-neck
vest needs one more evening, or part of one, after all. I’ve ribbed both
sleeve-holes and am about halfway through the neck ribbing. I started at one
shoulder and picked up stitches down the front at the agreed rate, three
stitches for every four rows, and then back up the second side to the other
shoulder – and only then, stopped to count. I had exactly the same number of
stitches on each side – 51. I’m not boasting or anything.

There is
much to be said, and comments to be commented on, a propos both garlic mustard
and the Sky Scarf, but I think I will deviate into Something Completely
Different (and self-indulgent).

On Monday
evening, for half an hour or so, my vision was distorted as if I were looking
through tears, or broken glass. I have learned, fairly recently in a long life,
to worry about retinal detachment so I wondered if this were that, and went
screaming to the optician yesterday, and it wasn’t, my retinas are fine.

When I had
my cataracts done four or five years ago, the surgeon said that my eye sockets
were unusually deep and that that made retinal detachment more likely than for
people with shallower eye sockets. Live and learn. A whole new anxiety to put
up there with macular degeneration. My sister is a doctor, you will remember,
so naturally I conferred with her on the subject.

Within a
week, she woke up with symptoms of retinal detachment – it was like looking
through lace, she said. She had prompt laser treatment, and all is well. But it
proves that it can happen, and that God has a sense of humour.

The
optician thought my symptom sounded like the visual distortions which often
precede a migraine – or can happen, painlessly, with no headache to follow.
That’s news. See a doctor if it goes on happening, she said. I am so relieved
that my sight is, for the moment, safe, that I don’t care about anything else.

But it was
a scare, and a chilling one. A reminder – I don’t want to be too gloomy here –
that something serious and bad will happen in the reasonably near future, given my age.

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

The v-neck
vest passed its trials with flying colours, making me feel actually happy about
the re-knitting. The narrower shoulders look good, and don’t want be augmented
by much in the way of sleeve-hole ribbing, which is fine by me. I’ve done the
first sleeve-hole, it looks very tidy, and have started picking up stitches for
the second. Two more sessions should finish this baby. The higher
starting-point for the v-neck opening is a great improvement, too. It can have a
bit more in the way of ribbing if it wants.

I’ve
enjoyed thinking about a Concept Scarf for next year. Standing on the doorstep
every morning at 8:15 and looking upwards is quite enough in the way of daily
discipline – I don’t want to add the requirement of having to go anywhere, even
across the road. So what about the garden just outside our kitchen window?

(You’ve
seen it before. It is tended by a Little Old Man and Little Old Woman who are
endlessly out there tweaking it. “It’s a wonder they have any garden left,” my
husband said the other day.)

Picking up your suggestion yesterday, Gerri, it could be
divided mentally into seven sections, one for each day of the week. Or, Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays could be devoted to the most striking current colours,
and the other days to representing greens. [Currently, there is a conspicuous blue flower just below the steps, to the left. You can scarcely make it out, in the picture.] I think the Shetland yarn stash – so
far untouched by the current purges – will produce a good range of greens. That
would be essential.

Here is the Sky Scarf. Helen said when she was here for Archie's "taster" week at Merchiston school that it looks much better in real life than in its photographs.

Horticulture

I just
stumbled across a reference to garlic mustard in one of the blogs I read. Have
I ever heard of it? It sounds delicious. It looks rather like a nettle. I gather it is a serious, invasive weed in the
NE of the USA.
It seems to be widespread in the UK, too, but perhaps because we’ve
got so many other weeds, no one seems greatly agitated about it. It prefers a
heavy, calcareous soil. Strathardle is light, sandy, and acid which may be why
I don’t know it. I hope I can keep it in mind long enough to look it up in
Sturtevant’s Edible Plants of the World when I get back there.

Thank you for your comment, Anonymous, about the wonders of the Internet (comment, yesterday). Yes, indeed. And how easily we have come to take its miracles for granted.

Monday, March 26, 2012

I haven’t
been frittering away time this morning, I have been composing a reasoned
message to my four children and their spouses about tree-planting, but the
effect is the same – I must be brief here.

I am
grateful for your sympathy, and greatly encouraged that three people thought
our pinus aurea might regenerate. What I tell you three times is true, in the
immortal phrase. Tamar, we have already engaged a man to build a proper cage
for the tree (or for the spot where we will plant another tree, as the case may
be) and also one for a tree which we mean to plant in memory of my husband’s
sister.

If the tree
is as dead as it looks, I am very much inclined at the moment to put a pinus
bungeana there. The link is to a page of pictures. It is famous for its
beautiful bark.

Knitting

I finished
re-knitting the v-neck vest yesterday, except for the ribbing which is of
course no small thing. So this morning my husband will try it on again – big
moment. I tried something which turned up in that newsletter of
Meg’s you referred me to, Ron, namely some short-row shaping on the front
shoulder line although there was none at the back. It won’t involve much
frogging if it doesn’t work, I figured – but in fact it looks fine.

I didn’t
take the Sky Scarf kit to Strathardle and it was just as well, because both
mornings the sky was a uniform dull grey, the sun hidden behind a haze which
never quite dissipated, no need for careful thought over yarn selection.

Leafcutter
Designs has come up with a new idea called the Social
Knitwork where you choose some colours and then ask your Facebook friends,
or whoever, to choose which one they like and write to tell you why they like
it and what associations they have with the colour and then you knit the
stripes in the order the comments come in.

I’m not
impressed. I’d like to do something else next year that involves a daily
decision, though. So it would have to be something that changes, such as nature. A daily
stroll through the nearest outdoors – DrummondPlaceGarden, when we’re here –
followed by knitting a colour one sees? Which could be an overall impression of
dancing daffodils or deep snow or returning green, or alternatively a small
flower spotted somewhere? More subjective than looking at the sky although that
in fact is more complicated and subjective than you might think.

Non-knit

Here, for
my sake rather than yours, is a boring picture of the Strathardle garden last
week. I have put up the rhubarb-forcing pot, as you see. You are not meant to
force the same rhubarb twice in succession, and I found I couldn’t remember
where I had put the pot last year. So I looked at the blog on my iPad and found
a picture which answered the question.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

We’re back.
Good weather. We had a good time and got some gardening done. Tragedy struck.

We vaguely
arranged, at the end of last summer, to let a neighbour put her two ponies in
our unused paddock. We assumed – most fatal of Famous Last Words – that she would
get in touch in the spring to discuss arrangements. She didn’t. There they
were. They have eaten (it is the sort of thing horses do) our pinus sylvestris
aurea, our Golden Pine, a Golden Wedding present from our four
children.

Here it is,
on the day we were given it, Games Day, ’07. (The actual anniversary was three
or four days later.) There never has been such an assembly, or such a day. My
husband’s sister, who died a year ago, is the figure in prophetic black towards
the right. I am holding the Glenisla Shield, which I won for Sam the Ram.
Rachel Miles of Beijing, in the front row,
has the Mandy Duncan Cup, for the best entry in the children’s sections. And my
husband is holding the tree.

Here it is
in ’10. Its photograph from last year is a bit boring, lacking a human being.
It was just beginning to settle thoroughly down, and had much enjoyed the mild
winter we’ve just had. I wish I had photographed it when we were there in
February.

There
remains perhaps a foot of trunk, rather barked. My husband says there is no
hope of regeneration but of course we will leave it in place this season. I’d
settle for anything, however bizarrely shaped.

These
things happen. My husband is philosophical. We will replace it, the new tree
will grow. I’m not sure I want to replace it. It was a living link with that
happy day. It was the last tree my
husband will ever plant with his own hands. It can’t be replaced.

There are a
couple of other things we had been thinking of – a pinus bungeana, for
instance, which the Chinese plant around temples. And there’s something whose
name I forget, with beautiful bark, just inside the near gate of the Botanic
Gardens. Maybe one or the other of those, for the spot? We’ll see.

I got more
gardening done than I would have thought possible for a single day. My wild
garlic has come up! I weeded the revenants – rhubarb, sorrel, Good King Henry.
I flung compost and well-rotted manure about, better late than never. I put the
support up for the peas. I moved the vegetable cage to its 2012 spot. I turned
over some soil. There is no sign of the globe artichokes or the sea kale, but
there is no sign of the Jerusalem
artichokes yet either (no relation), and they are unstoppable.

Not many
Welsh bunching onions have come back. There is an excellent turn-out, however,
from the walking onions I put in last year from a very unlikely source – was it
Finland?
– via eBay. I think it may be time to give up seed-planting here and order some
Welsh onion plants. They should be as indefatigable as chives.

As for
knitting, the Japanese shirt has regressed somewhat. I had put in the second
buttonhole last time, and there was a mysterious indentation in the selvedge at
that point. There isn’t going to be any other edging in which it could be
fudged, so I decided to rip. (“When in doubt, take it out.") The buttonhole has
been replaced, the edge is straight, but I haven’t knit back quite to the
previous point.

Here, I
have calculated the new slope for the v-neck – decrease every three rows,
involving therefore the dread p2togtbl. It’s not really that bad, and things
are going smoothly. I am knitting furiously, hoping to finish before the
package arrives from Knit Purl so that I can do some more sock-knitting.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

I suddenly
had a searing sore throat on Tuesday evening, accompanied by uncontrollable
coughing. It lasted about an hour and then both symptoms melted away, leaving
me feeling battered, and newly aware of the precariousness of life. I sort of
took yesterday off. I'm fine this morning, so today we’ll go to Strathardle for a two-nighter, back
here Sunday. Glorious weather.

We’ll need
to do better than that from here on out, if I am to have a garden this year.
But two nights will do for now.

I have
sorted out two generous bags-ful of lace yarn for the knitters at the Session House. I have
retained enough to keep me going for the rest of my life, if I knit nothing but
lace. However, for the first time since this vague clean-out began, I have the
feeling that there is less yarn in that cupboard than there used to be.

The one box
that never gets touched, of course, is the one with my Koigu collection. I
really must get going with implementing one of my ideas for that, if it is not
to be thrown ignorantly away after my death.

And I have
ordered Candace
Strick’s sock book. “A revolutionary approach to sock knitting”, written by
a friend. How could I resist? It’s coming from Amazon.com. Amazon.co.uk doesn’t
have it, and Candace’ own website suggests printing out the order form and
sending it to her with a check, which sounds to me about as useful as sending
cowie shells.

I’ve
finished re-knitting the back of the vest, and have embarked on the front. The
next job, now pressing, is to re-calculate the rate of decrease for the new,
shallower v-neck. Re-knitting great stretches of something already signed off
as an FO turns out to be fully as dispiriting as you might imagine. The
temptation is great to throw it aside and get on with the next sock. This time,
at least, I will have the wearer try it on before knitting the neck and
sleeve-hole ribbing. Although the thought of a second failure is too dreadful
to contemplate.

And I’ve
been thinking about my forthcoming snood.

Fiona, thank you for the tactful
pointer (comment, Tuesday) to the fact that there are two versions of the Shibui
Gradient snood pattern. I hadn’t noticed -- I took the two measurements, on a hasty first reading, to be inches and metric rather than First Size and Second Size. Whatever, I will have only
the four skeins from the kit, so it will have to be the smaller one. 45” sounds
OK.

I have been
spending quite a bit of contemplation time, the last two days, (=while washing
up, or walking about, or knitting) thinking about the question of yarn use with
this pattern. If you wind a skein carefully into three balls of equal weight,
and then knit for a while with all three held together, and then drop one and
add a different colour, and then drop a second and add a second of the different
colour…you get the idea.

If you do
all that, the three balls from the colour you started with will diminish
unequally. I think I’ve got my head around the problem and its resolution, but
it’s an effort.

Gerri, we need to talk about your question: is Jared's knitted-on i-cord the same as EZ's? I don't know yet, is the short answer.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

I didn’t
mean that I was going to attempt Argyle-type hose: way beyond my abilities. Not
suitable for Archie’s purpose, anyway. That was just a random paragraph about
kilt hose.

Roobeedoo, thank you for the
pointer to Kate Davies’ Betty Mouat
Cowl. Yes! I think I subscribed to her “Textisles” when the first issue
came out – whether or no, I’ve got it somewhere and will certainly get this
one tomorrow. I’m not going to use that pattern for the snood, though.

Whatever
pattern I use for the stitch and the details (=Jared’s knit-on icord edging), I
am going to stick with Knit Purl’s (=Shibui’s) system of knitting with three
strands together and changing one at a time so that the colours merge into each
other. This means they’ve got to merge back so that the end of the scarf
matches its beginning, and that may create problems related to how much yarn
one has got and how long the scarf is to be. If there’s one thing worse than
another, it’s frogging mohair.

I’ve
downloaded the
pattern from Knit Purl. It specifies a change every 4”. I’ll just have to
go for that and hope for the best. I see I’ve got to wind each skein into three
equal balls muself – I had sort of hoped that chore would be done for me. Careful
weighing needed.

That system
(the three strands, changing one at a time) is the one my friend Candace Strick
uses in her trademark Merging Colors.
In looking her up just now for that link, I find that she has a sock book out. Fate!

Notice, by
the way, that Kate Davies offers “snood” as a possible noun for the Betty Mouat
Cowl. I’m sure I’m on the right track here.

I got back
to the v-neck vest yesterday, made many calculations, started re-knitting the
back. It’s going very briskly, on fewer stitches of course, and I begin to
entertain hopes of finishing by Easter.

Here are
Ketki’s socks with their Sweet Tomato heels. I always knit fraternal rather than identical twins, with self-patterning yarn. There is something very satisfying about socks: so pleasant to
knit, so complete as objects, so useful, so quickly done.

I’ve
written to the designer of the Saxon Kilravock kilt hose, Smurf by name, to ask
how she got the Saxon braid pattern to come out even, although I think the only
possible answer is that it won’t, necessarily, unless one is lucky. She says
she has “OCD tendencies” which I think means she will have wanted it to.

Here is another family picture, completely irrelevant to anything that precedes. It shows Grandson Joe (Rachel's younger son), on the left, in Cambodia last week. He's the one who graduated last summer and now wonders what to do with the rest of his life.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Rejoicing
in NYC on Laetare Sunday, 2012:

From left
to right, around the table: Hellie’s boyfriend Matt, Matt’s brother, my sister
Helen, her son Theo, his wife Jenni, my brother-in-law Roger, my granddaughter
Hellie. I don’t know Matt’s brother, or even his name, but once he was identified to
me, I recognised the smile.

I rely on
you people for useful information, and you never fail me. But equally, for
thumbs-up’s to my wildest extravagances. Thanks for the approval (comments
yesterday) of my purchase of the future snood from Knit Purl. I have bought Jared's "Convoy" pattern. I like its open stitch -- the Knit Purl pattern is done in seed stitch. But I can't tell, reading it, whether it is going to be easy peasy or an utter pain, in the actual knitting. I am sure I will return to this subject.

The trouble
with my 2012 knitting to-do list – this probably applies to all years and to
all of us – is that items keep being added to the head of the list, meaning,
obviously, that other items are pushed further and further into the future.
Notably, here, my Effortless, or VK drape-front sweater as it may prove to be.

For I think
my best plan, once the vest has been re-knit and passed as satisfactory, is to
knit the snood right away – my 2012 Games entry, 4th Saturday in August. That
should free the summer months for Archie’s kilt hose, which he will presumably
need when school starts in September. Do read Tamar’s extremely interesting
comment yesterday about the history of tartans and their associations with
families.

And (for
Tamar): a dear friend, a retired naval officer who often wore the kilt and who
paid considerable attention to matters of dress, told me that white hose are
never worn unless you are in a pipe band. I had thought, until then, that they
were appropriate for formal wear, but he said no, for that you need something
special. As far as I can remember, the only time I have ever seen hose being
worn which were comparable to those in that link, was on my friend’s younger
son, at his father’s funeral. It was a memorable sight.

I discover,
in tracking down that link, that Kinloch Anderson have produced a panda tartan.
Archie might like to consider that.

I finished
Ketki’s socks last night, and cast on my own Crazy Zauberballs, which will have
an afterthought heel. They should advance considerably over the Easter weekend,
but for now will be relegated to the Emergency Knitting Bag as I resume the
v-neck vest. I am knitting these socks on my new square needles, size 2mm. They
didn’t come in 2.25mm, my usual sock-needle size. I bought both 2mm and 2.5mm
and have chosen the smaller ones because my new library of sock books keeps
recommending firm gauges. I can’t feel the squareness, in use.

The current plan is, Strathardle on Wednesday. We have an appointment there on Friday -- my husband doesn't want to be away the whole week because, with his hand still painful, he can't do anything there. I phoned the woman in charge of the Session House yesterday and learned that the knitting group can use laceweight yarns. I'll make up a package for them.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

..so called
because the liturgy of today’s Mass begins with the words, “Laetare, Jerusalem…” [meaning,
rejoice!] The priest’s vestments are a pleasant rose instead of Lenten purple,
and we relax our discipline a bit [meaning, drink cider!]. The Pope sometimes
blesses a golden rose and presents it to a Catholic queen, although he seems to
have given over that practice recently.

That
opening bit of the Mass goes on to something about being filled from the
breasts of your consolation – don’t ask me; blame deutero-Isiah – which is
presumably the reason that today is Mothering Sunday, when children
traditionally pick a posy of spring flowers for their mothers. The day has been
seized upon by the money-makers and horribilised, but it retains its place in
the liturgical calendar and moves hither and yon through the Sundays of spring
at the bidding of Easter.

Kilt hose

Archie rang
up yesterday – he is the only one of my grandchildren who regularly does that –
sounding both amused and pleased at the idea of my knitting his kilt hose. So
it’s all systems go. I can’t actually do anything, even buy yarn, until Archie
has chosen a kilt. He could wear the school tartan, which is blue, or he could
go for Robertson like his uncles (see sidebar), and it that case he could wear
either “red Robertson”, like them, or the “hunting” version, which is basically
green.

We are
agreed on a dark colour for the hose. Helen will study school photographs to
see what people have on.

(The
computer is being more than ordinarily recalcitrant, and seconds are precious
on Sunday morning. I’ll have to omit the links and fact-checks I’d like to
include.)

Thank you
for your help with this project. Woolley Bits, that link to the yarn source is
precisely what I wanted, and will be kept safely until needed. Skeindalous, I
found the Celtic Kilravock pattern on Ravelry (and the stitch pattern in
Barbara Walker). It’s stunning. It’s beautifully knit – that white yarn would
show up every blip, and there aren’t any.

What if the
pattern doesn’t come out even, in the length needed for fit? Maybe I’ll write
to her.

And,
Skeindalous, I don’t believe in authenticity (speaking as an American of Dutch
descent). All this kilt-ery and tartan stuff was invented by Walter Scott when
George IV made his ceremonial visit to Edinburgh.
Go to the Kinloch Anderson website (they make stuff for the royals) and look at
their female skirts/kilts.

Snood

I must have
bought something from Knit Purl once, because they keep sending me tempting
emails. Yesterday they came
up with this – the link was essential – and I fell for the green colorway.
That’s my snood, my Games entry. I hope to use Jared’s pattern for the actual
knitting, with the Knit Purl Gradient system of blending the colours.

And what’s
the use, you may well ask, of giving up Rowan Kidsilk Haze for life if I’m
going to fall for Shibui Silk Cloud?

Saturday, March 17, 2012

Progress,
all round. Alexander rang up yesterday to talk about arrangements for Easter.
Maybe Lent will end, one day! The sky is blue again this morning. I should
finish Ketki’s socks this weekend. Athens
sounds pleased with the idea of my knitting kilt hose.

In more
detail…

Lent

Tomorrow is
Laetare Sunday, the traditional day for mid-Lent relaxation (if you’re keeping
the Sundays at all, as I am – strictly, they aren’t part of Lent, and if you
count, you’ll see that there are 40 days between Ash Wednesday and Holy
Saturday without them). I’ve got some cider lined up. Rachel’s daughter Hellie
and her lovely boyfriend Matt will be in NYC, for reasons which I hope to
fathom when we meet on the shores of Loch Fyne. Something about work. My sister
and her husband are going down to the city to have lunch with them, and looking
forward to taking a glass or two of wine.

Socks

I’m round
the heel and cruising down the foot of Ketki’s second sock. I have decided what to cast on next for the emergency bag.
Whatever it is, should progress considerably over the Easter weekend. Well: it
will be the Crazy Zauberball Kristie gave me, for myself, with an afterthought heel.

I figured
that was something I could master and not have to worry about peering at an
instruction book while the party happens around me. I’ve done it, just now, although it took a while to find a tutorial
that cut to the chase. Everyone seemed to want to be cute, or to take up a
whole 15 minutes (plus loading time) on YouTube. But here’s a good
one.

The Van Gogh "Bedroom at Arles" yarn, and the Italian flag, arrived yesterday. What treats are in store!

Kilt hose

Helen writes: “Socks knitted by his
grandmother will blend in much better than a pair of bought ones which will
only be striving in their bought-ness to look as if they were made by someone's
grandmother. You can ask him what colour he'd like and we'll scour the
Merchiston on line photo albums to make sure the colour is more or less what
everyone is wearing.”

I haven’t yet found a European source for the
solid-colour Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Socka recommended by the
Kilravock pattern-writer (link yesterday). Lots and lots and lots of
self-patterning. Buggered if I'll order from America
and pay tax to re-import it into the European Union. Robeedoo, I like the OnLine yarn
you recommend and will go for that if one of the colours turns out to suit.

Vest

I'm beginning to look
forward to getting back to it. The interval has been just right. Ron, thank you
very much for the Zimmermann references. I've now read Meg's newsletter – how
did I ever get unsubscribed to that? I have rectified the omission – and am
ready to roll.

Friday, March 16, 2012

A blue stripe in the Sky Scarf this morning, the first for a
while. Lifts the spirits.

Miscellaneous, again

Roobeedoo, that
is simply the most wonderful model-picture for a pair of kilt hose I have ever
seen – and the hose
are pretty wonderful, too, although I’d make the turnover deeper. I haven’t
heard from Athens
yet, what Archie thinks about having his grandmother knit his kilt hose. My sister
warns me not to rush into it, lest I make him the laughing-stock of the school.

Anyway, first I'd need to see the kilt.

I was interested that the designer uses Schoeller & Stahl Fortissima Socka. That sounds and
looks like a plain-vanilla sock yarn. I have knit two or three pairs of kilt hose,
can’t remember, all of them in DK or sport-weight. Sock yarn would mean more
knitting, but perhaps a trimmer look. It doesn’t seem to be available in Britain, from a
quick search, but it shouldn’t be beyond the wit of man to find a German
supplier. The colour range looks good.

Although that is one project where
I’d really like to see the yarn before buying. Maybe I’ll go to the farmer’s
market tomorrow and make my way home via K1 Yarns. Or maybe not.
All her sock yarns (I’ve just looked) appear to be the sort of thing I’m
knitting now, not the sort of thing required for kilt hose.

Cotton
and Cloud has an enthusiastic blog entry this morning about a free
Icelandic design-your-own-Lopi
website. It looks good, although I didn’t persevere because it needs a free
Microsoft download on the lines of Flash Player, and I didn’t want to tax this
poor old computer beyond its capacities. I think maybe Easter will be the
moment to buy a new one. I’ve been talking about it for years.

Ron (comment yesterday), where does
EZ set out the percentages you mention? I think I’ve got the whole corpus here,
but I could only find yoke sweaters or drop-shoulder, nothing on how to
approach a set-in sleeve or sleeveless vest.

As for actual knitting, I am
rounding the second Sweet Tomato Heel without even looking back to the
instructions (famous last words). It consists of three short-row wedges stacked
on top of each other. I am just starting the second wedge.

Amazon seduced me this morning
with Ann Budd’s “Sock Knitting Master Class”. If nothing else, I’ll emerge from
this phase with the best sock-knitter’s library in Drummond Place.

Two of the sock yarns I ordered
the other day have made their appearance. I chose the blue colorway for Marasca
(the new Yarns-of-Italy yarn), thinking it might be darkish and gentlemanly,
and it is. Not for my husband, who is anti-blue, but for anyone else, even for
a son-in-law who wears a suit to work. I don’t think I’ve ever knit socks for
Helen’s husband David.

The other is KF’s Random Stripe in
“Heather”, which I long to cast on.

Thursday, March 15, 2012

Miscellany

Jared has a new collection out.
It works like a one-man Twist Collective: you thumb through the book on-line
and buy individual patterns. There’s an “infinity scarf” – a “snood” in my new
vocabulary – which I’m much taken with.

And I liked a pair of patterned socks which Zite offered the
other day. I thought again of Kristie’s
system – fancy socks as Knitting; plain socks for the emergency bag. Normally
in Zite, an item moves further and further back in the magazine for four or
five days, and eventually falls off the end. But occasionally an item vanishes
before its time, and that’s what happened to these socks.

I clung to what survived of my memory of them, and google’d
“sailor’s knot sock pattern”. Google got it in one, although the socks are actually
called “Angler’s Loop”. I wondered again how we managed our lives, before
Google. I’ve downloaded the pattern. I love cables.

And by the way, if you follow the link above to Kristie’s
blog, you’ll see her in a beautifully-knit example of Kate Davies’ Boreal
pattern, with link to the pattern. Kate most kindly sent me that pattern. I’ve
printed it out, and it’s on my ever-lengthening HALFPINT list.

Which gained two new items yesterday. Helen’s husband David
said that they urgently need a teacosy for their house on Mt.Pelion.
He suggested that I knit one in the shape of Mt.Ossa nearby (literary/historical reference). I’ve been through five pages of amazing
teacosies on Ravelry without seeing anything that looked like a mountain. You’d
think it would be an obvious shape for a teacosy. Does anyone happen to know of
one? That assignment defeated even Google.

I think the one I liked best on Ravelry was the one that looked like a
cricket sweater.

And the other new item on my list is a pair of kilt hose,
for Archie. Apparently he will need a kilt in his new role as a Merchiston
schoolboy. (I trust David and Helen have calculated not only the fees for this
venture, but the multitudinous extras. Kilts aren’t cheap.) I have knit hose
for James and Alexander, with fair but not spectacular success. I think Alexander is wearing my effort in the sidebar. James's wonderful red ones are store-boughten. I’d like to try
again, remembering the principle of negative ease.

But before any of this can happen, I’ve got to finish that
vest a second time. Rosesmama, thank you for the pointer to “Conservative (but
pretty) Dad Vest”. I found it, and downloaded. The shape is perfect. The
designer suggests making a schematic from an old vest that has the desired
shape. I should have followed that simple procedure from the beginning, using
the raggedy vest mentioned yesterday.

I was interested to note that several of the vests on the
Ravelry Dad Vest page have the fault which drove me to frog, namely too-wide
shoulders. One of them even showed the shoulder seam flopping down over the
upper arm, just like mine.

I’ve run out of space. Ketki’s socks are getting on fine,
and should reach the heel tonight.

Wednesday, March 14, 2012

MerchistonCastle school has offered Archie a place,
and his parents have accepted it. So here we go.

And Mr
Santorum won Alabama and Mississippi. I am enjoying the Republican
primaries enormously, although I doubt if I would enjoy watching President Santorum
and Mr Netanyahu nuking Iran.

I finished
the ribbing of Ketki’s second sock yesterday – the rest will knit itself. The
Sweet Tomato heel is easy, once you’ve done one.

I am afraid
I ordered all four of those sock yarns yesterday – even before I read your kind, enabling comments. I am full of plans for measuring the balls of people’s feet and
their ankles on the shores of Loch Fyne at Easter, and discussing socks with
Rachel’s grown up daughters – do they ever wear them? and with Alexander and
Rachel’s husband Ed – how adventurous can I be with yarn?

Alexander
works from home, and until he needed one for Theo’s wedding, didn’t own a suit.
(He was married in his kilt, a "red Robertson", which held its own rather well amidst Hindu
finery.) Maybe he would accept a pair of Bedroom-in-Arles socks to go with his
wife’s Restaurant-de-la-Sirene-at-Asnieres? Ed wears a suit and very
business-like socks during the working week, but perhaps he’d like something
more colourful for the happy hours spent at his allotment at the weekends? Such as KF stripes or the Italian flag?

By then the
revised vest should be nearly finished, too.

No, Knitlass, I haven’t done
anything at all yet about calculations for the second attempt on the vest. We both thought,
during the try-on, that two inches need to come off each shoulder. That’s a
start. And the angle of decline of the v-neck will need to be steeper if it’s to
start later. I will pay closer attention to the prototype, a raggedy vest I
knit for my husband decades ago. And, Shandy,
you’re quite right that a professional pattern might help. I must have
something in my extensive archives. Perhaps even the original pattern leaflet
for the raggedy prototype.

I was using
Vicki Squares “Knit Great Basics” or whatever it’s called – but perhaps I
wasn’t paying enough attention to it.

Miscellaneous (ironic)

When the
current adventure in Afghanistan
started, there was a group which threw itself into knitting Afghans for
Afghans. Maybe they’re still at it. I think I spotted one, covering a corpse in
the back of a lorry after Saturday night’s massacre. You probably saw the
picture – triangles joined to make squares.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

The good
news…

is that I
finished Ketki’s first sock, and started the second. I like it a lot.

The bad
news…

is that my
husband tried on the vest, and it won’t do.

It’s fine
in the two respects I was worried about, length and breadth. Where it falls down
is that the shoulders are too wide, and actually hang down a couple of inches
over the upper arm in a most unattractive fashion. And the v-neck is too deep,
by a couple of inches. So much for winging it.

All the
verbs in that paragraph should in fact be in the past tense. The vest couldn’t
have been left like that, hoping for the best. I’ve got to try again. And
experience teaches that it would be fatal to lay it aside while adding it to a
mental to-do list. The only course was to frog, and fast. I’ve done it.

I did allow
myself to take some time de solido die for the task, rather than assigning it
to the precious evening knitting slot. It took a while, what with detaching the
neck and armhole ribbing and dealing with those alternate skeins on the upper
back. (I think I’ve got enough of the darker yarn that I won’t have to do that
again.) But the job is done, and the stitches recovered.

I have
discovered in the past – although I don’t think I’ve ever had a disaster
involving as much re-knitting as this one – that once the stitches are back on
the needle, and persuaded to sit correctly, and the knitting is going forward
again, all sadness is forgotten. We shall see.

I’ll finish
Ketki’s socks, so as to be able to hand them over at Easter and see them on her
feet. Then I will have to start another pair, so that I have something in the
emergency-knitting-bag for waiting rooms and whatever life offers in the way of
out-of-the-house knitting time. I’ll follow Kristie’s excellent plan of
having a plain-vanilla pair on the go there, and save the exciting stuff for
when I can return to the Sock Project.

But I
laughed out loud, catdownunder,
at your comment yesterday: “Can’t you just make them the way you always have
made them, because they fit that way?”

Do I
deserve some more sock yarn, to cheer myself up for the frogging? KF’s Random
Stripe “Sizzle”? Van Gogh “Bedroom in Arles”? the
Italian flag? Or what about one of the new Marasca sock yarns?
A lot of the German yarns say made-in-Italy, if you look for the small print.
Why not go straight to source?

Monday, March 12, 2012

Non-knit

I begin my day with my
iPad – email, Flipboard, Zite. Flipboard has a “News” section – its own idea,
and I rarely look at it, but I did this morning. The first page is Gaza, Syria,
and something about losing weight; the second page is British news. There is
nothing about Afghanistan
anywhere. Of course at the moment it is the middle of the night in the USofA
where the mighty Flipboard computers are. But we in Britain had the news by the early
evening yesterday – afternoon on the Eastern seaboard. Plenty of time. Does
that represent the news reports America
will wake up to this morning? Surely not.

Knitting

I hope to finish
Ketki’s first sock today. I don’t know what we’re going to do about Strathardle
– my husband has been having a series of highish blood sugar levels, and wants
to consult the hospital. Also, his right hand, which had been slowly improving,
seized up entirely yesterday. Walking is more difficult even than usual because
he can’t hold his walking stick in his right hand. I had to help with dressing
for the first time. Slouchy-sized socks – my recent knitting – make things
easier.

Anonymous, you asked
for my “little [sock] list”. Here it is, as it appears in my electronic
Filofax. Notice the reference at the end to comments here – I appreciate you
people:

I agree with you
utterly, Catdownunder,
about being unenthusiastic about toe-up socks. That fiddly cast-on! The tedious
ribbing last! And, worst of all, no way to correct the foot length if I get it
slightly wrong. All the pattern-writers seem to think we knit socks for no one
but ourselves, and can be constantly trying them on.

But this is my year
for challenges, so I’ll have a go at it.

Twisted-front sweater

Mary Lou, I’m completely sure that the
pattern coincidence I talked about yesterday, was no more than that – a coincidence,
as you say. Both magazines and both designers were probably upset by it. Judith
(comment, Saturday), I so agree that Ravelry is simply invaluable for letting
us see how a contemplated pattern actually looks on actual people. The En
Pointe looks better than I would have expected. There aren’t enough real-world
examples of the VK version to judge.

Sunday, March 11, 2012

A grand
walk – around the Gladhouse Reservoir, if I’ve got that right. About five
miles, gradient-free, easy underfoot. There was a savage, cutting wind. I won’t
venture on such an activity again until I’ve knit myself a hat.

I’ve
finished my first Sweet Tomato heel. It’s early days, to say what I think of
it. It looks less decisive than the standard heel I’m used to. We’ll have to
see what the wearer thinks.

Sally
(comment yesterday), no, I’ve never tried the Afterthought Heel. But, like Ko
Ko, I’ve got a little list, and it’s there. Until I embarked on the current
sock, I had never done any heel except the bog-standard
heel-flap/turn-heel/pick-up-stitches-and-gradually-reduce-for-gusset.

The list
was made at random, with no attempt to arrange it in order of priority. The
next item on it, after the Sweet Tomato, is the Andersson
heel. I can’t remember how I came by it. I don’t find the instructions at
all lucid. It’s toe-up, and I’ve never done that. But I’m here for the
challenge.

My first
thought was to skip it, don’t like toe-up. But so many respected sock people
are enthusiastic about it, that it’s time I tried. The Sweet Tomato
instructions start with toe-up, and add top-down as an afterthought. (The heel
is the same, either way.) Fleegle’s
heel, further down the list, is another exmple. Her instructions, needless
to say, are a model of lucidity.

I was
pruning my Picture file just now, and stumbled on this, taken last June,
labelled “sock yarn”.

When I began to think of this Sock Project a few weeks
ago, I found I had only a dozen pairs of Unknit Socks, all of them reasonably attractive.
So I must have done some useful culling. The more I cull, the more yarn there
seems to be in that cupboard.

Twisted-front
sweaters

I found the
IK “En Pointe” pattern, Spring ’11. It’s even more similar to VK’s “drape-front
sweater”, Winter 2011-12, than I expected. Both are rectangles knit sideways,
with the front rectangle twisted. In the IK version, the short edges are then
joined at the bottom, forming armholes from which stitches are picked up for
sleeves. No sleeves for VK.

The IK one
thus becomes more of a garment, like the ballerina sweater its name suggests. It is knit of Louet
KidLin Lace Weight (35% mohair) on big needles, which may be why I passed it
over. I renounced Rowan’s Kidsilk Haze for life after knitting the Earth Stripe
Wrap, cover of Rowan 42, for granddaughter Hellie. (The result was very successful – no quarrel
with that.) And I think my antipathy may extend to all mohair.

The VK
version is knit in alpaca. Both versions have to be worn over something else,
because the twist creates quite a low neckline. But the VK one is more frankly
a layer. And I still prefer it.

But I am
surprised that VK would use something so soon that seems so clearly a rip-off. (Or is a twisted rectangle a well-known design feature which happens to be unknown to me?) The IK designer, Alice Tang, must have been livid.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

I must be
quick this morning, insofar as this dinosaur of a computer will let me. No links, no polished prose, no checking of statements. I’m
going for a walk with our niece. I hope I don’t disgrace myself by flagging – I
am aware of myself as older and feebler by the day.

The v-neck
vest is blocked. Again, the madeleinetosh yarn has relaxed a lot when wet. I’ll
carefully note the gauge I’ve now got, since I know I will never attain to the
state of perfection required to wet and block a swatch. But (as Ron and I
agree) what’s the use? The vest, as I promised a while ago, has been
blocked for a bit of extra-width and less-length. So the gauge is scarcely set
in stone. Still, worth noting.

And I’m
nearly finished with my first Sweet Tomato Heel. All my instincts rose up to
protest – can’t I just do it the usual way? But I persevered. There was some
frogging – what one does is knit to the point where the heel is to be, then
purl back to the other edge of the section designated for heel, then start
short-rowing.

Cat designates that first purl row as short-row, although it isn’t. The instructions, however, are crystal
clear. But I muffed it, and short-rowed the purl row, and fairly soon realised
that that wouldn’t work, because one needs to be poised for a knit row when the
shaping is done and all the little gaps have to be closed.

I used Eye
of the Partridge for that first attempt. But since I had to start again anyway,
I seized the chance to abandon it as too much for my weary intelligence. I’ll
come back to it in another sock when I’m not all agitated about heel-shaping.
I’m using my usual heel flap k1 p1 on the right side rows, purl the reverse.

Miscellaneous

I wandered
around Meadow Yarns for a while (link yesterday) and found a nice sock yarn,
can’t remember whether Opal or (I rather think) Regia, based on national flags.
I want some Italian socks. I also want all the rest of KF’s Random Stripe range
for Regia, now that I’ve knit two of them; and all the rest of Opal’s Van Gogh
range now that I’m knitting one. Lots of socks.

Not Zite
but my email in-box had two interesting items this morning:

1)Madelinetosh merino light. For my
snood?

2)An IK pattern called en pointe which
is remarkably like the VK twisted-front pullover I have my eye on. The IK one
precedes – it’s from the Spring, ’11, magazine which I will now have to find and
examine.

Construction
is different. The IK one is a Moebius tube with sleeves inserted. The VK one is
two rectangles, one longer than the other to allow for the twist, partially
sewn together along one long edge to form shoulder seams. All st st – the edges
must curl. You can’t really see in the picture. No sleeves, just overhang.

I must have
turned right past the IK version a year ago. Another triumph for photography?
More on this tomorrow if I can find the IK pattern.

Friday, March 09, 2012

You guys are always helpful, but you really excelled
yourselves yesterday.

Theresa and Sarah, I have, in my day, done the provisional
cast-on where you crochet the stitches directly on to the needle. And was
interested, indeed, to read Sarah’s caveat about what happens when the following row is ribbing. I’ve also done the
one where you make a cat’s cradle of the two yarns and dip the working needle
first under one, then under the other. I’d need to get the books out again for
that one, but it’s a lot of fun once you get going.

But since this is the year of challenges, maybe I should try
to master the crochet chain. There must be a video of it, out there somewhere.

Eadaoine, I don’t think I had ever heard of the Eye of Partridge
stitch, but I’ve looked it up and it’s easy (and memorable) and I will try to
incorporate it in the Sweet Tomato Heel. Which I should reach today. I don’t
think Cat’s video is much help, really – I looked at it again yesterday. I need
things written down. The pattern is in the copy of Sockupied I’ve got on the
iPad – I’ll work from that.

FiberQat, a broad rib sounds a good idea, for fit.

And Kristie,
you have solved the sock-pattern problem. (Keep a plain vanilla pair always on
the go – as I have for years; and classify anything fancier as KNITTING to be
done in the time-slot available for knitting.) That’s it! I think the next pair of socks I knit after Ketki's will be for myself, with the yarn you gave me last summer, to practice some of these new ideas.

Here’s one for you, in return: I have been suffering some
losses and breakages lately, and needed some more of my beloved KnitPro
needles. I ordered them from Meadow Yarn,
new to me, and a site I will revisit. I ordered a set of the square ones, as
well. It sounds an odd idea, but KnitPro must know what they’re doing.

Knitting

The vest is ready for blocking. I hope I’ll get that done
this morning. And Ketki’s socks, as mentioned above, have nearly reached the
heel. I love the way the Opal Van Gogh yarn is working out.

Non-Knit

Rachel and Ed are finding Lent a bit tedious, too. They
spent an evening recently with their daughter Hellie and her lovely boyfriend
Matt who were drinking white wine and beer, respectively, and found it
difficult. (My peaceful life is largely devoid of such challenges.) Matt said
that since we drank on Good Friday last year, it is now traditional to do so.

He is wrong. We only drink on Good Friday when the Rest and
Be Thankful is closed. My husband and I had to make a 50-mile detour that day through
Crianlarich and Tyndrum and Inverary, to reach Alexander and Ketki. Rachel and
Ed, driving up from London, had to take the Dunoon ferry.

Thursday, March 08, 2012

The vest is
finished, except for a few loose ends and the blocking. It’s looking good.

Here are some pics,
colour useless. Taken yesterday, before I had quite finished. In real life, it’s a rich dark grey shot with green, really
rather magnificent. The pictures show more than the naked eye perceives,
of the difference between the initial light skein and the subsequent dark ones.

On the back view, you can clearly see the striped effect on the back from
armhole to shoulder, where I was alternating the skeins.

I’ll try
for better photography when it’s stretched out being blocked. Those are ridiculous.

Now on to
the sock project. Sarah (comment Tuesday), you’re right about The Knitter’s
Book of Socks. It’s seriously good. She says, among much else, that short-row
heels, being all in st st, are more vulnerable to abrasion than the standard
heel-flap-and-gusset model. We shall see. I wonder if all the heels in the
little list I have made, come into that category?

The first
to be attempted, on the current Van Gogh socks for Ketki, is to be Cat Bordhi’s
Sweet Tomato heel. I will warn Ketki.

It sounds
as if the incorporation of a certain amount of ribbing is my best bet for a
longish leg that doesn’t sag too much. Alas, as it will interrupt the sheer
peacefulness of sock-knitting. I admire a lot of sock patterns, including many
of the ones in this book, but so far have no ambition to knit them. The whole
point, for me, is the bliss of knitting round and round with wonderful yarn and
no effort.

Thank you
very much indeed, Roobeedoo and
Skeindalous, for your remarks about the Millwater snood (as we must learn to
call it). I haven’t looked at the pattern at all yet except to note that it
begins with a provisional cast-on. I have never mastered that business of
picking up back loops from a crocheted chain. Maybe this is the moment? Or
maybe I’ll fall back on one of the easier methods.

But I’ll
remember that it can be made smaller.

My current
vague plan is to knit the VK drape-front sweater (no 12, Winter 2011-2) with
the madelinetosh yarn previously earmarked for Effortless. I can always knit
Effortless some other time. I think I would get more use out of it, as
something to fling on over a shirt on a cool summer’s day of which Scotland affords
many. And I think it might use less
yarn, and therefore leave some for Millwater.

The left-overs from the v-neck vest won’t be
enough, and the difference between the light skein and the two dark ones is too
much to be overlooked

Wednesday, March 07, 2012

The
Economist, and the New Yorker, and The Knitter’s Book of Socks were all in
yesterday’s post. A great relief. And there is an Alice Munro story in the New
Yorker – not an issue to miss.

At very
first glance, The Knitter’s Book of Socks disappoints in having too many pages
devoted to yarn – I am happy to leave that topic to Mr Opal and Mr Regia – and
not enough on fit. But I think I’ve got to move beyond first glance. The author
is clearly concerned with fit – it’s promised on the cover. I suspect the ideas
are in there. To begin with, I must pay more attention to negative ease.

Maybe the
best way really to get to grips with the problem, would be to knit socks for
myself. I normally don’t wear them, because I don’t wear trousers (shock!
horror!) and don’t want to draw attention to my sturdy ankles.

As for
actual knitting, I’ve polished off the neck ribbing on the v-neck vest, and
have proceeded to the armholes. Indeed, am poised to cast off the ribbing for
the first one. Might I even finish this evening?

I bought
the pattern for the Millwater
scarf this morning – it came up, remember, when I asked Ravelry for
“snood”. I like it, and have decided to declare it a snood willy-nilly (that being the category required for Games entries this year). Is
there enough madelinetosh DK “Georgia O’Keefe” left over to knit it? I’ll get
out the kitchen scales. I didn't print the pattern, with the thought of moving it into GoodReader on the iPad and knitting from that.

My sister and her husband are coming to see us in May. I put "gardening sweater for Ed" on my New Year's list of things-to-knit. More madelinetosh?

I reflected
just now that Lent and the Sky Scarf have reached precisely the same point: the excitement of starting, the pleasure of
making early progress, are giving way, in both cases, to irritation at the
burden and gloom at the thought of the path ahead. On I plod with both, however.

I am
feeling restless this morning. Although the weather has turned colder, the sap
is rising all around me. We need to get back to Strathardle.

Tuesday, March 06, 2012

A good day,
yesterday.

I got my
husband to the National Gallery, and later fetched him away from it. I got some
things done in his absence that had been bugging me. And later, knitting
leapt forward.

In the end,
I phoned the Gallery. To their credit, the telephone was answered directly by
an intelligent human being. No need to choose-from-the-following-options. And
she told me that it was all right to drive down the Mound from above, despite
being neither a bus or a taxi, if all I wanted was access to the National
Gallery. But don’t take my word for it. The centre of Edinburgh is a mess, and the rules can change
from one day to the next.

My husband
had a nice time, but came home tired. The committee won’t pronounce on our
picture until June. In the evening we watched "Coogan's Bluff". It hasn't aged at all well (=isn't terribly good). But it was interesting to look back on a world where goodies and baddies alike smoked, and where there was only one black man in the whole of Manhattan.

While I was
alone, I tidied a little table which was piled high with the clutter of months.
That felt good. And sent in my seed and potato order. It has been hard to find
the usual enthusiasm for that job, so miserable was last year’s garden. But
it’s done at last. I have ordered a few plug plants, as Rachel’s husband Ed
does. Will they fare any better?

And,
knitting

In the evening, I finished
the body of the v-neck vest (to my surprise), did a three-needle bind off on
the shoulders, picked up stitches around the neck and knit a couple of rounds
of ribbing. For the pick-up, I did a careful one-two-three skip down one side
and up the other, as advised, without counting higher than four. To my astonishment I wound
up with exactly the same number of stitches on each side. My memory is that when
I am aiming at a specific total, it is much easier to achieve it on one side
than on the other.

Vicki Square’s kimono book turned up yesterday –
the first one. It’s good. She starts with the history of the kimono, and its
basic construction, and then provides a dozen or more variations on the theme.
Even flipping through the pages, one is inspired to seize the elements and
reconstruct them to one’s heart’s desire. Might this be the stage for my
ever-receding Koigu masterpiece?

We had no
mail delivered last Friday. Any other day of the week, one might shrug
(suspiciously) and say, well, maybe no one wrote to us. But the Economist
always comes on Friday. It didn’t, and hasn’t turned up subsequently. I think
last week’s New Yorker is missing as well. I was worried about “The Knitter’s
Book of Socks” which I will need for the Great Sock Session to come, but Amazon
says that’s due today.

Yesterday I
was successful in collaring our excellent postwoman. Friday was her day off,
she said – no surprise there. She’s now on the case.

Monday, March 05, 2012

Archie is
in Athens.
Helen phoned from there last night to say he was in rare form, enthusiastic
about going to Merchiston – why not name it? – in a way she hasn’t seen him
enthusiastic about anything for a long time. This is wonderful news.

Today’s
event will be delivering my husband to the National Gallery for lunch with the
Director and a curator friend. He will hand over that picture we bought some
months ago, an adolescent work, a portrait of his brother, by ????? ??????. The
idea being that the Gallery might be interested to have it as a document, since
the artist in question was one of Scotland’s greatest, in his
maturity.

The
Acquisitions Committee has to OK acceptance. Today's handover is to
let the Director see it before the committee meets.

So last
night we packaged it up. My husband is fussy to the last degree about the
physical welfare of works of art. It is now ready for a rough sea crossing. And
today I must figure out how to drive from Drummond Place to the National Gallery. A
week ago – when Helen and I took Archie to Merchiston – one drove across WaverleyBridge, up to the top of the Mound, and
then down to the Gallery, if required.

Yesterday
there were electric signs all over Edinburgh
saying there was no access to WaverleyBridge. The Mound is open
to busses and taxis only. Websites are not helpful, at least with my limited understanding. The simple answer would be to send him off by taxi,
if he’d let me.

We have had
the picture on a table in our bedroom all these weeks. It grows on one. We’ll
miss it.

Knitting

Picture-wrapping
consumed the evening, and little was achieved knitting-wise. The two halves of
the front of the v-neck vest are getting farther apart as I progress (as they
should) and last night the feared disaster struck – I finished a row on one
side, and found that the yarn on the other was not where I expected to find it,
but at the far end.

I panicked,
I think. Quiet, calm deliberation was needed at that point, but what followed
was a little frenzy of frogging and re-inserting the needle from the wrong
direction. I think I’m back on track. It is easy to see the decreases, they are even, and I
have the same number of stitches on each side. Must be all right.

Thank you
for the reinforcement about the three-for-four ratio for the nexk ribbing
(three stitches picked up for every four rows). I didn’t consult the
Zimmermanns on this point, not entirely trusting EZ. I’m glad to learn that
that’s the way Meg does it.

The reason
I didn’t entirely trust her was that when I first knit the Seamless Hybrid
Sweater from KWT – I regard it as unspeakably beautiful – I followed
instructions as written, and the saddle shoulder puffed up in a most
unattractive way. EZ says to join shoulder to body at the end of every row. It
doesn’t work. You’ve got to allow for the difference between row gauge and stitch
gauge in st st.